Click to read the original text for details Recently, Want Want once again topped the hot search. According to public reports, sales of three classic Want Want products surged significantly, with sales growth rates reaching 76%, 87%, and 107% respectively. Undoubtedly, this is another wave of wild spending. From Erke, Shanghai Bee & Flower, and other established domestic brands gaining attention, to Baixiang Instant Noodles and the recently viral Want Want, cases of wild spending are everywhere. For entrepreneurs, their unintentional actions have become reasons for wild spending in the eyes of current consumers. Therefore, for brands, wild spending has become a rare opportunity. Based on this, this article attempts to clarify three questions: What are the commonalities of wild spending? Why are consumers forgotten after wild spending? And how should brands address the problems exposed by wild spending? 01 Characteristics of Wild Spending "Those who carry firewood for others should not be left to freeze in the snow." This might be the underlying logic of wild spending. What are the characteristics of wild spending? Let's look at some cases. When you think of Want Want, what comes to mind? I think before August 3 this year, you wouldn't have associated Want Want with patriotism. On August 3, 2022, U.S. House Speaker Pelosi, disregarding the advice of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, insisted on visiting Taiwan. Overnight, we saw countless Taiwanese compatriots speaking out for national territorial sovereignty. Want Want's second son's Weibo post condemning Taiwan independence activists received numerous likes and attention, even making it to the hot search. Thanks to patriotic sentiment, Want Want became "prosperous" again. This year's 3.15 Consumer Rights Gala exposed the "pit pickled cabbage" incident. Compared to many instant noodle companies' apologies, Baixiang gave a bold response: "No cooperation, eat with confidence." Baixiang quickly made it to the hot search. According to data from the Convenience Food Conference, in 2020, in the mainland China instant noodle market, Master Kong, Uni-President, and Jinmailang accounted for 46%, 15%, and 11% of sales respectively, firmly holding the top three positions. Baixiang's share was less than 10%, at only 7%, ranking fourth. Despite declining sales, Baixiang maintained product quality, demonstrating its commitment to integrity and conscience as a state-owned enterprise. During the severe floods in Zhengzhou in 2021, countless citizens and companies spontaneously donated money and supplies. Erke, despite operating difficulties, donated 50 million yuan to the disaster area. This behavior not only won netizens' favor but also led to a surge in product sales. Erke's actions broke consumers' long-held perceptions of entrepreneurs. Nowadays, people no longer evaluate entrepreneurs solely by economic benefits but also by whether they are willing to take on social responsibility when needed. From the above three cases, it seems easy to draw a conclusion. Wild spending is a consumption phenomenon where, in the face of hot events, a company's values such as patriotism, conscience, integrity, and public welfare resonate with consumers, triggering strong consumer emotions and leading to fervent consumption. For consumers, wild spending begins with emotion and will inevitably end with rationality. How to avoid being forgotten after wild spending seems to be an unavoidable topic. 02 Why Are Consumers Forgotten After Wild Spending? To answer how not to be forgotten, it might be helpful to reverse-engineer why consumers are forgotten. The characteristic of wild spending is that a company's certain values resonate with consumers at a specific time. From an emotional perspective, being forgotten after wild spending is normal because people are fickle and cannot maintain high attention to a hot topic for long. For example, on August 3, hundreds of millions of netizens paid attention to Pelosi's movements, but a week later, that number clearly declined. So for brands, wild spending brings short-term traffic dividends and deepens consumer awareness of products. To avoid being forgotten, brands need to continuously refine their products and create new "waves" around their core values. From a product perspective, being forgotten means consumers have found better alternatives. A product's composition always rises from function to emotion to value. From the consumer's expectation perspective, this is a gradual upward process. The essence of wild spending is that consumers identify with a company's behavior, directly raising their expectations to the product value level. For established brands like Erke and Baixiang, consumers actually have memory points. After the events were exposed, consumers' purchase desire surged at the product value level. However, consumers did not buy because the products were good or high quality; you could even understand it as consumers merely venting their unplaced emotions. This explains why Erke and Baixiang's "resurgence" lasted only two to three months before online followers and sales quickly declined. In today's consumption upgrade, consumers no longer only value low prices and high cost-performance. They care about whether products can continuously create value. To avoid being forgotten, brands must create new value points that consumers recognize and accept. 03 Creating Waves, Being Recommended, Continuously Providing Value What is creating waves? Creating waves is using people's curiosity to generate buzz events, conveying the product's emotional value to the onlookers, and letting them spread the brand message. For example, when Trump suppressed Huawei, Huawei could have used patriotic sentiment, but it didn't. Instead, it simply used two posters to show its determination and attitude. Huawei conveyed its values through the posters, evoking sympathy and admiration, prompting countless likes and shares. People were watching Trump suppress Huawei, but what they shared was Huawei's consistent values. This was a perfect communication event. How to be recommended? The core is to find the product's irresistible recommendation point for users. For example, suppose you are the owner of a piano training class, and a parent brings a child to your classroom. How can you provide a reason the parent cannot refuse?

  1. Our teachers are piano level 10 and have won XX awards.
  2. Our class offers one free lesson for every 10 paid lessons.
  3. Children who learn piano won't go astray. If you were the parent, which of these three options would be the reason you cannot refuse? I think most parents would choose 3. Although all three options can impress consumers, options 1 and 2 are not compelling enough to close the deal. Because parents care about their children, and the possibility of children going astray is real. So option 3 is clearly more persuasive. Let's extend this scenario. The parent is good friends with another parent whose child is mischievous and troublesome. The first parent suggests that the other parent's child also learn piano. If the child becomes less hyperactive after learning piano, do you think the parent would recommend the brand to others? In summary, to be recommended by users, you must create irresistible value for them, and this value must be scarce. The low involvement and impulsive buying nature of FMCG mean that if your product cannot continuously get users to share, your communication costs will rise exponentially. So you must provide consumers with an irresistible reason to buy. How to continuously provide value? From a marketing perspective, continuously providing value to consumers is essentially continuously solving their needs. Whether you can sustain this depends on whether a stable symbiotic relationship has formed between you. For example, in the U.S., when you buy a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle, the salesperson gives you two things: the key and a Harley Owners Group membership card. This organization spans four continents, not just an online community, and often hosts regional owner gatherings. So Harley-Davidson understands that a brand offers consumers not just a product but a lifestyle. The brand not only creates a communication platform but also encourages active sharing and participation. For consumers, they not only buy a motorcycle but also continuously satisfy new needs related to motorcycles through the community. In essence, the internal logic of these three words is still user lifecycle management. Starting from attracting users' attention, continuously providing long-term, lifelong value, thereby achieving continuous interaction, purchase, and sharing. However, it should be noted that this connection model is a positive pyramid, not seeking to acquire a large number of users in a short time but to continuously operate users. Through creative communication + quality products + continuous value provision, accumulate as many users as possible, eventually forming a large group of loyal fans. This achieves the goal of continuous purchase and promotion, ultimately forming a stable business loop. Final Thoughts: For brands, wild spending is an opportunity to break into new markets. Its essence is that consumers, through public opinion, push you to the forefront in a short time. Creating waves is also about pushing yourself to the forefront. The essence of being at the forefront is low-cost traffic acquisition. But water can carry a boat, and it can also capsize it. Your past actions, current moves, and words will be scrutinized by all industries, and any misstep can backfire. However, in terms of creating waves, planning is not guilty. Just as a knife is innocent, it depends on whose hands it is in. This reminds us that whether we are planners, brand owners, or distributors, our entrepreneurial intentions must be upright. Of course, some will say that ideals are one thing, but reality is harsh. Finally, I want to share a quote from Mozi's "The Way of Business": "If I profit and the customer does not, the customer will not stay; if my profit is large and the customer's is small, the customer will not last; if the customer profits and I do not, then without the skin, where can the hair attach? If the customer and I profit equally, then the customer will last, and I will profit long-term—this is win-win! I hope you will think it over." -END-